Hymns were led by George Henderson:
Hymn 1. Praise Ye The Lord, The Almighty
Hymn 2. O, For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

Announcements were given by George Henderson and included:
*St. Peter’s Quarterly Newsletter, ‘People Like You’, is ready to be delivered if anyone is able to help putting them through local letterboxes. It announces St. Peter’s 50th Anniversary with a celebratory service to be held January 14th.
*We have hired an Office Administrator to work at our UK Headquarters at Market Harborough, Alexis Luckloo from the Northampton Congregation.
*Joe Tkach’s weekly update will be on the Notice Board
*Rod Matthews thanks everyone for their prayers for his surgery which went well.
*James Newby’s family are mourning the death of his father
*George Campbell is very ill and at the end of his life
*Reg Newton has had a pacemaker fitted this week and is recovering well
*Geoff Sole is in Bangladesh, due back this coming Thursday
*Myanmar and Zimbabwe are both facing crises and need our prayers

Hymn 3. Name Of All Majesty

Intercessory Prayer was offered by Phillip Halford, who began commenting on CIN—Children In Need, the annual fund-raising campaign that occurred this week, and went on to talk about another CIN—Christians In Need:*We see, great God, the suffering going on around the world like in Myanmar and Zimbabwe this week. We know there is only one solution, coming at your return, and we pray for this unceasingly
*We ask for your intervention as we pray for Christians in our Denomination in great need—George Campbell, Len Maylin, roland and Janie Gadsden and Reg Newton who just had a pacemaker fitted.
*Be with those bereaved like the Newbys in the US.
*Thank you that you hear our prayers and we rejoice that Rod Matthews is recovering from his operation. Continue to heal him.
*We praise, honour and glorify you always

Hymn 4. There Is A RedeemerHymn 5. Meekness And Majesty

The Message was given by Irene Wilson, entitled Our Third ‘Birth’day! Her message today was on Bereavement, and she quoted John Halford who said perhaps God would welcome us not to our eternal rest, but to the rest of eternity! We have three birthdays—physical birth, we are born again at baptism, and at the resurrection we are born into an eternal body. Death is only a horizon from where we can see eternity. Death is the enemy. To someone who loses a loved one, time does not heal, it only helps you cope. Everyone feels things differently and you cannot say ‘I know how you feel’—only Jesus can say this! And we have a promise in Psa. 28:9 and Matthew 28:20 that God will not leave us. We are not alone in times of pain. He totally understands as he lost his only son to death and Jesus wept over Lazarus. Jesus died so we do not have to and we look to that time when life will no longer end in death but life will give way to life eternal. We can look beyond this moment of grief to life. The crushing sadness of death will end and your future will not include death. But we still grieve our loss. It is one of life’s most difficult experiences and is number one on the stress scale.
God declared his creation very good—death was not a part of God’s original plan and he is not to blame for our problems—he did not create disease, sin and death—we did. God looks on the widows and orphans with love and compassion. He is the defender of widows. Psa. 68:5, Exodus 22 & 23 and Deut. 27:19. He tells us not to oppress widows, orphans & foreigners in Malachi 3:5 an Mark 4:20.
Hope and dreams are important. We have finite disappointment—never lose infinite hope. Read Jeremiah 29:11—I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you, give you hope and a future. Many lose the desire to live and want to follow loved ones in death but like Paul, we need to remember that God has other plans for us-Philippians 1:23. Our journey continues and God is with us. We live for him, trust him, follow him and do his will. We can’t imagine our glorious future but we can hold on to the promise when grief threatenes to engulf us. John 16:33 says in me you have peace—I have overcome the world. Look forward with joy to our third birthday and let this hope for the future sustain us.
Irene prayed Romans 15:13 over us all—May the god of all hope fill you with joy.

The final Hymn was For All The Saints after which the Closing Prayer was led by David Silcox

Fellowship continued over refreshments in the church hall.

Children’s Church was led by Jean Sole and Jeni Ozumba looking at biblical analogies of bread—Jesus is the bread of life. They made bread and shared the results with the congregation after the Service during refreshments.

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The Bricket Wood Bible Study is bi-weekly on Friday nights at 7:30 in the upstairs room at the St. Stephen’s Parish Centre. Anyone is welcome to join us as we study through the Gospel of John. Refreshments are served after the study.